Teach Primary Issue 18.4

Poets like Valerie Bloom, Joseph Coelho, Matt Goodfellow, Kate Wakeling and Karl Nova show children the range and breadth of voices and styles that exist in children’s poetry, and serve as inspiration for pupils to perform and write poetry of their own. These video performances give children a model of what poems sound like off the page. Through these they not only learn what fluent reading sounds like, but also how to imbue reading with the meaning contained in the poem and engage the listener most effectively. As Steven Camden, who won the 2019 CLiPPA with his collection Everything All at Once shares, “What matters to me most is the connection to what you’re saying. It’s fitting your emotional connection to the words and then translating that to your audience.” Engaging with texts Finding that connection with a poem comes from hearing it, then re-reading and discussing it multiple times. A n important part of the Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry ward (CLiPPA) is our school shadowing scheme, which aims to directly engage children with the award and the poetry it celebrates. To support schools, CLPE provides planning and video resources. These are based on what we know works in effectively teaching and engaging children with poetry. Children listen to the shortlisted poets perform poetry and engage in reading and discussing poetry, before performing poetry for themselves. Schools can submit videos of the best performances for the chance to win the ultimate prize – the opportunity to perform on stage at the National Theatre in London at the award ceremony alongside the poets themselves. Listening to poets The best way to get children really engaging with poetry is to make sure that they hear a wide range of it, as often as possible. It’s so important that children hear and feel the distinct rhythms of different voices and dialects, and see that poetry comes in different forms and can be written by a range of different people. Each year, we video the five poets shortlisted for the CLiPPA, so that children can experience the form out loud, from the writers themselves. Children need time to read, re-read and respond to poetry. However, we must make sure that we don’t jump into trying to dissect the poem before giving pupils the opportunity to internalise and respond to it at a personal level. Ideally, initial engagement will involve group discussion, where children can come together in responding to poems from their own unique viewpoints and with their own experiences in mind. As poet Ruth Awolola, highly commended in the 2019 CLiPPA, recognises, “It’s impossible to be wrong about poetry. Any interpretation a child has of a poem is valid; it can’t be wrong. The author is the least important person when reading a poem. The reader is the most important person, and each individual person is going to have a different interpretation. They’ll find different things in it, hidden gems.” As children read and re-read a poem, not only does their fluency improve, but their focus also moves from simply lifting words from the page to understanding the words and their collective meanings. Children will also be able to secure and deepen their emotional connection with the poem, whether it be a laugh-out-loud limerick or a moving free verse. It’s often helpful to print copies of particular poems for pupils to explore in pairs or groups to gain and share multiple perspectives. The children can mark up and annotate the poems with their thoughts, feelings, observations and questions, and highlight particular language that interests them. These multiple chances to read and talk about texts will then teach children much about how they could and should be performed. Once pupils have established their own connections with the poem they can then mark it up with ideas on how best to perform it. Preparing to perform It’s important to allow pupils to choose the poems they most connect with to perform, as this will engage them and make their performance more authentic. Preparing for a performance allows children multiple opportunities to practise reading, working to express the meaning behind the words most effectively by 42 | www.teachwire.net “Video performances give children a model of what poems sound like off the page” From page TO STAGE If you really want children to engage with poetry, turn it into a performance, says CLPE learning and programme director, Charlotte Hacking